Ginger, thanks for your interesting questions. Sort of farm--During my growing-up years when my father ran it (I was born in '51), it was basically a hog and grain farm. He grew lots of corn for the pigs and to sell, plus some oats, but started growing soybeans in the sixties as a cash crop as well. We had a few chickens early on, but found it more convenient to buy at the store. (I think even store-bought chicken used to taste better back then.) My mother was a city girl from 200 miles away and hadn't inherited the gardening genes of her father. She did like to grow yellow wax beans and freeze them, which we all enjoyed. During my father's growing up it was much more diversified. At present, having retained about a third of the acreage, 122 acres, our renter/manager/neighbor specializes in grain--soybeans and corn. Organic veggies?--I've gradually gone to organic and permacultural gardening for fun. I really love fruit, and since my husband and I can be on the farm only three months of the year (we teach up in Alaska and fly our Cessna down every year), time is at a premium. Therefore, perennial edibles are my priority, with maybe a few yellow wax beans. So I've planted fruit trees and small-fruit shrubs, asparagus, rhubarb, hardneck garlic (not really perennial, of course), garlic chives, and (my namesake) Egyptian onions, plus many other kinds of herbs. All of these are just jumbled together for a permacultureal type of system, though I do plant them in such a way as to enhance the ability to mow around them. In the east garden, for instance, I planted over the years three rows of fruit trees, plus another row of currants, rhubarb, and grapes. In between the trees, I planted within the rows all kinds of herbaceaous plants, for organic companion reasons, but also so that I could just run the mower all the way up and down without having to go around each individual tree. (I initially scoffed at the by-word "easy to mow around," but soon incorporated it into my criteria of good gardening once I actually started mowing.) Rainbow garden-- Blue: blue flax Darker blue: Veronica austriaca 'Crater Lake Blue' Annual blue salvia that either survive or reseed every year, c.r.n. (can't remember name)--Victoria? Purple: annual reseeding larkpur, Consolida ambigua Veronica spicata 'Blue Peter' Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue' Salvia X Superba 'Blue Hill' Salvia 'Superba Blue Queen' Red: Ground cover rose 'Red Ribbons' (Jackson & Perkins) Dianthus, 'Flashing Light' and 'Brilliant' Orange: Asclepias tuberosa Gaillardia, 'Goblin' and a bigger c.r.n. Gold: Coreopsis, tall c.r.n. Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldsturm' Yellow: Achillea filipendula Coreopsis 'Zagreb' Green: Juniper horizontalis 'Plumosa Youngstown' Euphorbia cyparissias (am phasing out as juniper grows) Historical restoration--As I view pictures that go all the way back to 1900, I see many changes, including the location of fences, the coming and going of huge trees, and in the ground itself as I describe before with the double terracing. And yet there are still a couple of barns and a corn crib that endure. Times change and new personalities come in. My blood link to the past allows me to both have some knowledge of the past, as well as the capability of gathing more knowledge from pictures, written material, and friends and neighbors whose relationships with the family go back for generations. I cherish this, and often repeat plantings to mimic the past. Yet I can't put it all back and I don't feel the need. As long as I have the family blood, the farm is still evolving as the family farm. I try to do it justice, and though I enjoy it tremendously myself, I'm really only borrowing it from the next generation, whether it goes to my nieces (we're child-free) or whether it changes over to a whole new set of genes. Please check out the gallery again as I will soon have some more pictures in it. Egyptianonion

I just hope they will let me take it to do something with, and not just say "oh, we called the Historical Society and they didn't want it, said it was in such bad condition so we gave it to Salvation Army (threw it away, something similar)." Or have other aunt put it on a dress form in her loft over the fireplaced (used every winter) FR like she did my grandma's 75 yr old gown and grandpa's suit. I have no idea whether the dress is "lovely" or lace - all I know is that great-grandma saved it, she died when my godmother was 20 or 21, everybody who lived in that house since saved it even though it was hung and never boxed. Same thing with the china - my dad said it was never used (must have been early in 1900's but not when he was a boy), always stayed in butler's pantry, I do think my godmother used the platter to bring things to Grange b/c I found tape with her name on it on the back. I still can't believe my uncle (who grew up there seeing how it was treasured) let his wife and DD box it up without even washing it. It didn't have dust on it - but some pieces were actually gritty, they wrapped it in printed newpaper, as I said stacked it flat and crammed in cups and saucers, top and sides of taped box were bulging. No way would it survive trip (in another pickup - hopefully cab) to SC. The grit wasn't from being in pickup since I picked it up in my SUV. So newspaper must have been dirty? I washed it, air-dried in padded drainer, dried thoroughly with towel, and wrapped in unprinted newprint, at least 3 sheets each, in Rubbermaid box with air packs around edges and foam peanuts in spaces b/t. I sure hope it survives the next trip. My mom says Aunt has so much junk in her house she'll probably never unpack it, when she passes it'll probably go to someone who doesn't care, or be sold. I hope not - her DS who is coming to pick stuff up is 5 yrs older than me, family historian, so hopefully he will keep it. My godmother and her older brother who just turned 96 raised their younger siblings, my grandpa included, who in turn lived there with DW and their 5 boys, (plus their father, my godmother and younger DB for a while - maybe even the "baby" for a short time - so 5-6 adults and 5 kids in 4 bedrooms - great-uncle and boys slept in old servants' quarters in back of house upstairs, their parents slept in one of the front upstairs rooms, my 2 great-aunts slept in the other room, great-grandpa was downstairs in godmother's old room until they turned that into bathroom and then he moved to the parlor). None of them ever did anything with house or contents unless it was absolutely necessary - maybe it was neglect, maybe it was lack of $$ or maybe it was respect, or all 3, but it breaks my heart to see the old knee-knocker servant's stairway closed off and sheetrocked over at the top - we always used that staircase to visit great-uncle and DW when we went to see godmother downstairs (he converted upstairs to apt and put doors b/t front and back when he got married in early 70's - when he was in his 40's). And the upstairs is all sheetrocked - OK, I can see not keeping old horsehair plaster walls and sheetrocked and fake wood paneling (still not insulated) 70's renos, they did keep old brick fireplace (upstairs was added to original house sometime in 1800's and chimney was extended) and exposed beams in what was attic. But no casings on doors, very open and modern looking with picture window in back and that awful ceiling fan on the cathedral ceiling - at least they put grilles in new windows in front and saved the old front banister and treads, though stairs had to be rebuilt. I just hope they can save the mantels in the 2 front rooms downstairs, and the huge fireplace in the main room (original 1-room house?) that they used as DR until the 70's. The kitchen and milk room were added to the back of the house sometime in the 1800's, no foundation (?) and are falling off as is the back porch so they will probably have to be torn down, not sure where they will put kitchen downstairs. Hope they don't totally gut and pull out the pantry and the stairs behind it. Though it would be nice not to have electrical conduit running across the ceiling of the original 1 room. Sorry for another vent - I bought the back acreage from the youngest brother back in 2000 so it would stay in the family, 6 years later DH found a job in this state and we started planning modular house, moved in 2007. That winter we had a blizzard and Meals on Wheels couldn't make it out so I started bringing godmother dinner 3-4 times a week (enough for every night) when I found she didn't like their food anyway, we had been visiting her once a week or so when we first moved in but were busy with the house, after the blizzard I (and sometimes DD) would see her every other day, all through the summer too, we'd walk down through the woods b/c it's shorter than the road. She celebrated her 90th in Sept and then went into nursing home just as they moved in upstairs - my dad, his youngest DB (who lives across the street from farm) and I were the only ones who'd visit regularly. DD (just turned 5) still remembers her, has visited oldest DB (picked blueberries at his house last summer when I went to mend the fence) and is impressed by how old he is, upset when saw his tombstone until I explained it was just ready for him, they put his name on when his DW (my grandma's sister, 2 DB's married 2 DS's) died. Seems like not many have appreciation for the family history. I was thinking "something old, something new" for the young (now 3-10 yrs old) brides of the next generation, but aside from DD, I don't know if they even know their great-grandparents' names, much less their great-great-grandma's. Sorry, have to vent - DH is tired of hearing it, says I shouldn't get involved.

Netla - I adore Mary Roach and her writing. She came to campus one day for a talk, and she was absolutely hilarious. Really recommend that anyone see her if she comes your way - truly interesting and funny way to spend your evening. I have just finished Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller (1998), a debut novel by a daughter of a Korean immigrant wife and her white US missionary husband who now live in Hawaii. The books flips back and forth between the daughter's present time PoV and the mother's (now dead) PoV and the cultural/generational clashes that arise. The mother can see spirits and goes into trances - a gift that she believes she was given after having suffered as a "comfort woman" to the Japanese troops when they invaded Korea. Not a straight-forward narrative and quite a bit of magical realism (naturally, since we see some of it from the mother's PoV). Normally not a big fan of this, but this book worked for me once I got the hang of the writing style. Not a happy book, but a good one with a strong ending. I also liked learning about the various beliefs and customs for some of the villages in Korea - fascinating. (Still not a big fan of kim chee.) :-)

Vee and Annpan, American writers of children's books are just as apt as English ones to anthropomorphize and dress their animal characters in human clothes. Besides Disney, there's Dr Seuss and his weird critters, Joel Chandler Harris's no-longer-PC "Uncle Remus" tales, the Sesame Street characters, and probably a lot of others. Some Americans are very fond of the English books, too. The difference I see, though, between these writers' stories and those of English writers: American readers, unlike English readers, seldom continue to favor them long past childhood. Oh, they often remember them affectionately, are likely to read them to their own children or reread them for themselves, etc., but the majority of American adults aren't going to admit that children's books are still their favorite books. Maybe it's a fear of being labeled 'childish'. I don't know. It's an interesting sociological/cultural phenomenon -- to me, that is. :-) My own personal problem with the English books: they are so unbearably pretty and precious. I hated Beatrix Potter's books! Especially Peter Rabbit. Vee, my sons loved Babar, so I gritted my teeth and read those books more than I ever wanted to. In fact I probably read more kids' books as an adult than I did as a child. The breakover age for me was about nine.